Product Description

A wickedly witty satire, The Loser Letters chronicles the conversion of a young adult Christian to atheism. With modern humor rivaling that of the media lampooning Onion, found on college campuses all over America, A. F. Christian's open letters to the "spokesmen of the New Atheism" explain her reasons for rejecting God and the logical consequences of that choice. Along the way she offers pithy advice to famous atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, in the hope of helping them win over more Christians.

"Of course we score big time with the young guys who aren't responsible for anything, and don't really care about anything besides spending most of their time in the basement playing video games and texting girls," A.F. Christian points out. But what about all those serious, thoughtful people who are Christian believers? If the New Atheism is to make real headway, she argues, its advocates must do more to persuade intelligent theists living meaningful and fulfilling lives.

Amid the many current books arguing for or against religion, social critic and writer Mary Eberstadt's The Loser Letters is truly unique: a black comedy about theism and atheism that is simultaneously a rollicking defense of Christianity.

Echoing C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters and Dante's Divine Comedy, Eberstadt takes aim at bestsellers like The God Delusion and God Is Not Great with the sexual libertinism their authors advocate. In her loveable and articulate tragic-comic heroine, A.F. Christian, Dawkins, Hitchens and the other "Brights" have met their match.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8089 in Books
• Brand: Ignatius Press
• Published on: 2010-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .49" h x 5.26" w x 8.16" l, .44 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 150 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781586174316
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Review
As a Christian humorist, Mary Eberstadt is the rightful heir and assignee of C.S. Lewis, and her heroine in The Loser Letters is the legitimate child (or perhaps grandchild) of "the patient" in The Screwtape Letters. - --P.J. O'Rourke, Author, Parliament of Whores

Mary Eberstadt is one smart cookie. If you don't believe me, ask Satan. --George Weigel

This is a wise, funny, and winning book. --Michael Novak

Customer Reviews

Intimidating Intelligence Dims the Brights
In an anything-but-apologetic apologia, Mary Eberstadt challenges the many spokesmen (and they are almost all men) for the New Atheism in her satire, The Loser Letters. Reminiscent of Ted Turner's infamous comment that Christianity is a religion for losers, the Loser in this book is God.

The intimidatingly intelligent Eberstadt has established herself as an incisive writer who engages explosive and controversial topics. She critiqued the practice of administering strong drugs to schoolchildren in an effort to promote better school performance in Why Ritalin Rules and extended her treatment of the topic in her book, Home Alone America.

She has exposed the effects of the sexual revolution and has chronicled developments from Anglican acceptance of contraception at the Lambeth Conference in 1930 to the denomination's current warfare over homosexuality. She presents a uniquely perceptive view of pop culture with arresting titles such as Is Food the New Sex? and Eminem Is Right. She makes frequent, and provocative, contributions to the Wall Street Journal, Policy Review, Commentary, and First Things.

The Loser Letters, Eberstadt's first published work of fiction, draws on a long satirical tradition from Juvenal to The Screwtape Letters. Eberstadt's protagonist, a young woman named A. F. Christian (as in, "A Former Christian"), details the journey of her enlightened abandonment of her "cradle Dullness" (namely, her Christian faith) and her adaptation to atheism. Christian writes excited, star-struck letters to the self-described so-called "Brights" of the New Atheism, in which she gushes about the Brights' superiority while candidly evaluating the weaknesses that limit the New Atheism's ability to win new converts. With this device, Eberstadt delivers a gripping story line with a chilling twist at the end and, in the process, administers a smackdown of the New Atheism.

The Loser Letters is a must-read for anyone interested in the current atheism debate, for believing parents, and for readers who enjoy a good black comedy with deep themes. I, for one, cannot wait for the response from the Brights. Bring it on!

You have *got* to read this
I read these letters when they were first published on National Review Online. I had never cared for apologetics before this, but for me, this opened up a whole new way of looking at the subject. Every time I describe these letters to someone, they are always shocked and amazed, just like I was. The dark twist in these letters is exquisitely gut-wrenching. I can't imagine why anyone would not love this book.

A brilliant skewering
of the intellectual masquerade of militant, evangelical, dogmatic atheism.

All of the letters are good, and build nicely, with more subtlety and insight than are likely to be grasped on a single reading. But be sure to read number nine most carefully. It is the best of a very fine lot.